New Years Day. Once off the ferry we journeyed down towards the west side of the south island heading for Franz Joseph. It was a lovely evening to be doing the drive and no-one else seemed to be on the road, felt like we had New Zealand and it's amazing scenery all to ourselves. But the windy roads were very tiring so we decided to stop overnight where we could, which turned out to be a quaint little town called Reefton about 2.5 hours from the Ferry. We got a motel room with en-suite and a telly, yey. Arrived just in time to get last food orders and I had the biggest steak I have ever seen. Anyway, it felt a bit hill billyish the town but we were glad of the break.

Next day we started off early to Franz Joseph, weather changed and it began to rain , and rain, and rain some more!!